Carbing and aging bottles-keeping under 20C

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Truman42

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When I lived in my previous house I had stairs and would store my primed bottles under the stairs for 2-4 weeks (depending on the time of year) to let them carb up.
The house Im in now doesnt have stairs so no area in the house that stays around 15-20C. Ive put my primed bottles in milk crates in the hallway cupboard but on some of these hot days the thermostat on the wall says its 34C when I get home from work and crank the aircon up. So Im a bit concerned that these bottles are at least getting up to 25C during the day and what issues this may have with the yeast and subsequent taste of my beer.

Also my usual practice is to let them carb up but keep them out of the fridge once they are done and only fridge them once I am going to drink them or whatever I can fit in my fridge. So some of them may sit in milk crates for 6-8 weeks before I get around to drinking the last lot.
Is aging bottles like this the best way to do it? Or once they are carbed up should they all be put into a fridge to age and kept in the fridge for a few months to age?
 
Just set the air-con @ 24 degrees for 24 hours a day.

Or build a set of stairs. Problem solved!
 
what does your brain and heart say to do truman....seroiusly, think it through i want to know...
 
Liam_snorkel said:
just set the air-con @ 24 degrees for 24 hours a day :D
Yehh right.... :D

Fents said:
what does your brain and heart say to do truman....seroiusly, think it through i want to know...
Well Fents i dont know what the maximum temps a beer thats been primed and is carbing up can handle without throwing off flavours out. Some may tell me that 25C is okay if its a day here or there, or that off flavours dont produce as readily in closed bottles as they do in a fermenter. ..Thats why I asked.

And I have no idea if its better to age your bottles out of the fridge or in the fridge as ive read and been told both. Ive kept mine out of the fridge as I dont have as much space to move them all into the fridge once they are carbed. But if its going to make a diference I might get another fridge. If it doesnt really I wont bother...But once again...Thats why I asked...
 
I don't know how people age beer under temperature controlled conditions unless they have a dozen STC-1000 controlled fridges or maybe an entire cooled shed in the backyard.
 
I once had a batch in the shed on a 40 degree day, it buggered them up, well thats my excuse anyway,
like an astronaut, they eventually came back, but were never quite the same
 
personally, i think that if you are after an authentic commercial beer taste, you should brew a few cases of beer, put them in cardboard boxes, borrow a pallet from chep (as you know chep owns the pallets so you cant own it, just borrow it) then put the pallet in your driveway, preferably during hot midday sun, will carb them up quick smart, with no off flavours, works well for VB

or as others have said, build a set of stairs
 
I wouldn't be too worried about it, but if you can keep them in the coolest part of your house, (eastern side)? that might ease any concerns you have.
 
Truman said:
Yehh right.... :D


Well Fents i dont know what the maximum temps a beer thats been primed and is carbing up can handle without throwing off flavours out. Some may tell me that 25C is okay if its a day here or there, or that off flavours dont produce as readily in closed bottles as they do in a fermenter. ..Thats why I asked.

And I have no idea if its better to age your bottles out of the fridge or in the fridge as ive read and been told both. Ive kept mine out of the fridge as I dont have as much space to move them all into the fridge once they are carbed. But if its going to make a diference I might get another fridge. If it doesnt really I wont bother...But once again...Thats why I asked...
Honestly unless you have the massive amounts of cash to blow on temp control do what YOU can do to minimise the risk's, not everyting has to be by the book or a consensous of what everyone says on AHB. I know your head tell's you that 25c is probably a bit high but will be OK...listen to you gut!
 
Fark me there's some bored people on AHB today. And where's the obligatory "try kegging" post?!

Truman, you're doing fine, keeping them in a dark cupboard inside your house is as good as it's gonna get. Once your beer is in the bottles and stored in the dark like that, temp variations away from direct sunlight and other heat/light sources will be minimal. Certainly the odd period of 25 degree temps in the dark isn't going to do any harm.

If you're really worried, and I don't reckon you need to be, buy a cheapie hand held weather station jobbie off eBay that shows current temp along with min/max temps since last reset. Then you can place it in various locations around your new joint for a few days at a time to see if there's anywhere cooler...and to see what the temp is really getting to inside that hallway cupboard. Something like this.

And depending on the brew, it's fine to keep them in a dark cupboard for months if not years in the bottle. Especially darker brews like brown ales and stouts/porters etc. Wheat beers are better moved to the fridge after a few weeks and consumed more quickly anyway.
 
carniebrew said:
Fark me there's some bored people on AHB today. And where's the obligatory "try kegging" post?!

Truman, you're doing fine, keeping them in a dark cupboard inside your house is as good as it's gonna get. Once your beer is in the bottles and stored in the dark like that, temp variations away from direct sunlight and other heat/light sources will be minimal. Certainly the odd period of 25 degree temps in the dark isn't going to do any harm.

If you're really worried, and I don't reckon you need to be, buy a cheapie hand held weather station jobbie off eBay that shows current temp along with min/max temps since last reset. Then you can place it in various locations around your new joint for a few days at a time to see if there's anywhere cooler...and to see what the temp is really getting to inside that hallway cupboard. Something like this.

And depending on the brew, it's fine to keep them in a dark cupboard for months if not years in the bottle. Especially darker brews like brown ales and stouts/porters etc. Wheat beers are better moved to the fridge after a few weeks and consumed more quickly anyway.
Thanks very much for the informative reply CarnieBrew, very much appreciated and exactly the sort of information I was looking for especially this bit...

And depending on the brew, it's fine to keep them in a dark cupboard for months if not years in the bottle. Especially darker brews like brown ales and stouts/porters etc. Wheat beers are better moved to the fridge after a few weeks and consumed more quickly anyway.
I just didnt know what these extremes of temps could do to affect my beer so just making sure.

And I do keg, but still bottle a dozen or so from each batch.
 
for me 2-3 months at room temp (under 30), then fridge, less for wheat more for big arse stouts etc
 
Mikedub said:
for me 2-3 months at room temp (under 30), then fridge, less for wheat more for big arse stouts etc
I had previously been told its better to fridge them once they were carbed and store and age them at around 8C for that time so thats what I wanted to clear up. Cheers.
 
@ Liam..I typed that before reading your post. I knew the higher the temps the quicker they would carb as I have mine carbed after a week in summer and 4 weeks plus in winter. My main concern was the extremes of temps and what it can do to the beer in the middle of summer, if anything.
 
I love AHB, always good for a laugh.

I have one tiny fermenting fridge so no facility to age large numbers of bottles at ideal temperatures. My beer lives in the corner of a double brick garage, where temps have hit at least 32 on the real hot days. I've been here for 12 months, with a few bottles of a few styles of beer having lived through some frigid winters nights and some farking hot days. Cracked an ale last night that has so far survived two summers and it tasted great, good depth and no discernible adverse flavours that I could detect. Also got some old ciders (2 years + old) and a few old irish reds that have been stored under said conditions. All are still tasting great and developing well.

While I know these aren't the ideal conditions to store ones beer in it is the best I can do and I haven't noticed any adverse effects from these storage conditions (yet).

If you've got your bottles stored in the dark in a cupboard the temperature fluctuations are probably going to be less than you think. If you're super worried when the days heat up chuck a wet towel over them and if you're super keen a small fan and hey presto you've got evaporative cooling for your beer (again I've done this on hot days and temps haven't risen above 23 under the blanket).
 
I was talking about ageing.

so if (once carbed) you store your beer at 4deg, it will stay fresh for quite a while.
store it at 20deg and it will age noticeably over a few months / year
store it at 30+ deg and it will go down hill rapidly.
 
Truman said:
Or will aging in a fridge allow the yeast to drop right out to the bottom making the beer clearer? Whats going to provide the best benefit here? Im intersted to hear in what other brewers do to age their beer.
This bit got a bit missed in the flurry of replies. Yes, once the yeast have consumed the fermentables you added at bottling time, they'll fall asleep and drop out in the same way they do during fermenting. Once they've done that, putting the bottle in the fridge won't noticeably clear it any more than not doing so.
 
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